Losing tolerance to winter cold

Overall, in over the decades, I'm losing my resistance to really cold weather. And it varies, each season.

Right now, I could have worn a fall cycling jacket and layered up since temp. above freezin'. But no, I felt best with a winter gortex below hip jacket that I go snowshoeing, but I cycled now whenever I do it during these winter months. I wasn't sorry either with today's wind in my face...even though I sweated slightly as soon as I stepped indoors at home.

I can't beat myself too much for being whimpier at nearly 53 yrs. At least, I feel warmer just so that I can cycle around and be comfortable outdoors.

Unbelievable that I used to walk around in a dress with a knee length winter coat, pantyhose and dress shoes over 30 yrs. ago for same just above freezin' temperatures and no snow.
Are you losing your winter cold resistance much as years roll by?

No, I don't think so. I can handle cold better than i could 20 years ago, before I got fit. I couldn't have my ears exposed to cold (below 55 degrees) without experiencing a lot of pain. THat just doesn't happen any more. and i'm 60 now.

Same for me. My cold tolerance is greater now and I'm 60.

Remember as a kid you would spend hours in the pool. lake, beach etc and didn't feel cold at all? And now as an adult you have to be very hot and then after 5 mins in the water you run back to your towel?

I lost my cold tolerance when I hit puberty, pretty much. I happily wear long sleeves if it's below 80. I don't swim unless other people think the water feels like bath water. I wish I could tolerate it better b/c I'd love to do a tri. Maybe I need a wool bathing suit...c'mon, Ibex? Icebreaker?

But on the other hand, I also overheat now very quickly when I'm working out. So while I looooove my down jacket and will wear it all day at the office if I walked in with it on, I can't run in more than a long-sleeved shirt unless it's below 20. I'll be freezing for a few minutes (and my feet and hands will be numb for 15-20) but I'll feel like I'm suffocating once I warm up.

I think my cold tolerance has increased due to my last two winters in Edmonton.

I lost a lot of tolerance between about 18 and 35. Except for the asthma-related episode I mentioned in the other thread, it seems to have been pretty stable since then. Although since I started having (brief, mild) hot flashes I occasionally have a few seconds when I'm not freezing!

I'm losing heat tolerance too, it seems, and that worries me a lot more than the other.

Mine has increased, as far as exercising in the cold. As for just walking around, like in the city, I can tolerate it, as I have better clothes now, but I prefer NOT to do it. I love being outdoors in the winter, but I am working hard!
I have lost tolerance to heat since leaving AZ, but what I really have no tolerance for is heat and humidity. It increased a little over the past 2 summers, which were really hot here.
I understand why people want to move to places where it doesn't get cold, but I love the change of seasons/winter sports so much, I will never do it. I also couldn't live somewhere where the winter was longer than it is here. Really, January and February are real winter here, with some variation in December and March. Some years we get snow in those months and other years, not. It's been mostly not in the past couple of years.

My tolerance to cold varies a great deal according to what I'm doing, if I'm hungry or full, drunk or not..., and how my immune system is doing. If I'm cold, my body is telling me that I need to do something about it, or I will end up sneezing and miserable. I don't think it's changed with age. But I'm better at dressing the cold out.

But Norwegian has two different words for distinguishing between being cold ("kald"), and feeling cold ("fryse", literally "freezing"). Being "kald" just means that you can feel something is cold but it's not bothersome, i.e. you're generating enough heat from inside. But if you "fryser" it means you're bothered by the cold, feel uncomfortable and need to warm up.

The tipping point between those two states changes from October to February :)

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Originally Posted by lph

But Norwegian has two different words for distinguishing between being cold ("kald"), and feeling cold ("fryse", literally "freezing"). Being "kald" just means that you can feel something is cold but it's not bothersome, i.e. you're generating enough heat from inside. But if you "fryser" it means you're bothered by the cold, feel uncomfortable and need to warm up.

:)

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Very cool!! and in Italy, even if it over 100 degrees, if you turn a fan on, people think you're entertaining pneumonia...

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Originally Posted by Kiwi Stoker

Remember as a kid you would spend hours in the pool. lake, beach etc and didn't feel cold at all?

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We were very different kids. I was the whiny one with the blue lips that was too cold to try to dry myself with the towel a helpful adult handed to me..

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Originally Posted by lph

But Norwegian has two different words for distinguishing between being cold ("kald"), and feeling cold ("fryse", literally "freezing"). Being "kald" just means that you can feel something is cold but it's not bothersome, i.e. you're generating enough heat from inside. But if you "fryser" it means you're bothered by the cold, feel uncomfortable and need to warm up.

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Dearie tells me that German has the same two word equivalencies too. German words sounds the same as Norwegian too. He's not too sure of their spelling in German.

I will do sports in cold and have noticed that I heat up rapidly once I get going, but again I have to pay attention to my hands because of Reynauld's condition/syndrome. I am not overly thrilled walking around in -24 degrees C winter cold/snow but have done it ...for several hrs. last year when we were up in the Rockies. We were within the town limits on trails, but it's not a situation I want to be out in the middle of wilderness. Certainly never alone.

Strange when cycling season heats up, wearing cycling shorts initially feels cold at 15 degrees C and but by fall, I'm fine at 5 degrees C in shorts, my legs always build up resistance to cooler temperatures. In fact, I find it hard to get back into full length tights for first few days.

I may be losing my resistance to hot, humid (100%) weather now that I've lived away from that type of heat over the past 10 yrs. Yes, southern Ontario summers become like that often.

I think my tolerance for temperature is about the same as always. In my late teens and twenties, I used to get hives on my knees and elbows when the weather was cool and I was active and warm. That doesn't happen anymore.

My tolerance changes dramatically from the beginning to the end of the season.

It also changed as I got more fit. I used to always be the one who was cold and wearing a sweater as everyone else begged to turn the ac colder. Now I'm the one wanting to turn the temp down.

We have more brown fat when we are younger.

I can remember as a kid ALWAYS sweating and being overheated...even in Jan. I would wear shorts to school in NE Wisconsin.

It all changed after I gave birth to my son. I can remember being SO cold that I could not get warm, even if I jacked the heat up to 80. It's better, now, but I still tolerate heat better and have less tolerance for cold. I usually can't fall asleep unless I have a heating pad draped over my hip.

I guess I'm so old that we would have never considered going without gloves, a hat, and a scarf under our woolen pea coats or duffle coats!
I think I have better tolerance now, due to the invention of merino wool and my knowledge of layering.
But all of those years in the south and southwest made me forget. When I first came back here, I rarely wore wool and I was cold all of the time. I even x country skied in cotton long underwear and a cotton turtleneck :eek:.
How dumb was that?

I have a coworker who is continually preaching about how technical gear is just overpriced crap, unnecessary, REI is the devil, etc etc etc...

Well he earned some gift cards to REI this year because of a work incentive and his fiancee convinced him to buy a down jacket to ski. Boy, it's amazing how quickly he changed his tune...

(he still complains about the price, but he seems to see that there might be a reason for it!)

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

Overall, in over the decades, I'm losing my resistance to really cold weather. And it varies, each season.

Right now, I could have worn a fall cycling jacket and layered up since temp. above freezin'. But no, I felt best with a winter gortex below hip jacket that I go snowshoeing, but I cycled now whenever I do it during these winter months. I wasn't sorry either with today's wind in my face...even though I sweated slightly as soon as I stepped indoors at home.

I can't beat myself too much for being whimpier at nearly 53 yrs. At least, I feel warmer just so that I can cycle around and be comfortable outdoors.

Unbelievable that I used to walk around in a dress with a knee length winter coat, pantyhose and dress shoes over 30 yrs. ago for same just above freezin' temperatures and no snow.
Are you losing your winter cold resistance much as years roll by?

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yeah menopause!!! My cold tolerance has greatly decreased because after a hot flash that leaves me drenched I then get chilled- hoping to age out of it!!!!!!!!!!! (:

Today, we are at a place in the mountains where it's -23 degrees C. Not far from the Continental Divide. Really, I have no desire to snowshoe in wilderness when it's this cold. Having a sore foot and wondering if I can do the trek, is a bit of a disincentive.

I know how you feel. I've x country skied and snow shoed in those temperatures. Or at least, it was that cold when we started. If it's sunny, and I have lots of wool and chemical warmers, I'm OK.
But a sore foot would stop me.

According to me, it all depends on your health and being fit. If you eat healthy and do regular exercises can help you to cope up with this issue. Weak peoples normally experience this since i have come across many such individuals. Age is not a matter in this.

My body is really strange. If I'm inside and the temperature is below 80 degrees, there is a good probability that I am freezing.

I am always good at thermoregulating outside though. Maybe it's my body telling me to get OUT OUT OUT and play.

I do tend to keep my house really cold in the winter (around 60 degrees) and hot in the summer (85 or so) so I am acclimated better to the outside. It totally works!

I have really lost my tolerance to cold for a couple of reasons. First of all, I bug out in the winter time so my adaptation has more or less disappeared. But even more importantly, since losing 1/3 of my body weight I am much, much colder than I was. I think that my metabolism took a big hit.

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Originally Posted by goldfinch

I have really lost my tolerance to cold for a couple of reasons. First of all, I bug out in the winter time so my adaptation has more or less disappeared. But even more importantly, since losing 1/3 of my body weight I am much, much colder than I was. I think that my metabolism took a big hit.

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My metabolism isn't slow at all (it was just recently tested) but I AM much colder than I was 80 pounds ago...I try to ride in at least temps >freezing in the winter, but with cold-air induced asthma I have to be careful. If I didn't ride solo most of the time I would likely try to push it but I allow wisdom to guide me at this at least.

Catrin, you have cold air induced asthma too? Ok, maybe I am weird but have you ever induced an asthma attack from eating ice cream or something frozen? My first experience with it was eating a Wendy's frosty too quickly. Instant asthma attack! Bizarro!

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Originally Posted by Reesha

Catrin, you have cold air induced asthma too? Ok, maybe I am weird but have you ever induced an asthma attack from eating ice cream or something frozen? My first experience with it was eating a Wendy's frosty too quickly. Instant asthma attack! Bizarro!

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No, just get the "cold induced" intense pinpoint headache - oy I hate that!

Certainly my tolerance to winter cold in past few years, has been, um, "fine-tuned". If I keep moving and there isn't a strong wind, not much ice/snow and dressed warmly, I can cycle/snowshoe to -20C for an hr. or so. This is from being acclimatized to prairie cold. But I wasn't like this living in Vancouver. I got "soft" with balmier winters. :o It does help to have grown up in Ontario.

Now I've noticed with our extreme temperature changes which can be a up to 40 degree F difference between early morning to early afternoon, it's been harder for me to toughen up within 1 day.

But as the cycling season warms up from cold winter, I can cycle in longer shorts from 10 degrees C onward for an hr. before it gets warmer.

I would like to comment on being slimmer and feeling "colder". For many years, certainly I've noticed with shaking hands with other people, yes, my handshake is cooler or shaking hands with other people who are slimmer.

But then this all varies. But for myself, hovering at 100 lbs. or less, I will affirm that I'm a medium warmth dresser, overall My partner who is a more medium weight for his build, feels his legs alot colder than I ever do.

Usually when I wear 1 pair tights comfortably, he needs to wear tights plus wind pants.

For winter, it is the wind strength and ice that bugs me more now as I get older.

But today I cannot wear a sleeveless tank top comfortably like today for some women I saw, where it's around 14-18 degrees F ...that translates in the 70's F. For me, I need to have 80-85 degree F heat to go sleeveless. Still on the Pacific coast at that temperature, I find that edge of cool requires me to wear short-sleeved jerseys.

Humidex @90-100 plus heat @80 degrees F and above, is definitely quite hot for me. My tolerance for hot humidity most definitely is dropping off with age.

It's my hands in past few years, I have Reynauld's condition where my fingers feel freezingly cold at just barely freezing temperatures.